So this week was pretty fun and exciting. We were able to get to talk to a bunch of new people and met with a lot of the same. On Monday we went to Triberg which is just outside of our area. It is like the black forest resort town. They are all about the nature and old school germany (like wooden houses and dressing up in older style clothing). While I was there I was able to pick out some pretty cool souveniers, some that I sent home already, but the big thing about it was that we got to do it with a lady we have been working with. She enjoyed it a ton and loved everything about it. Even though she has been there before, she still wants to do all the stuff again. We got to hike up an area and go by some waterfalls and even stopped to teach her a lesson on the way up. It was way nice and exciting and I am way happy I got the chance to go there before I left.
When we returned we had family home evening with the lady and her daughter. Her daughter is sixteen and is actually a less active member. She hasn't been to church since she was eight. This was the first time we met with her. After playing a bunch of games, playing some music, and elder baird trying to eat four yufkas (probably about 4 kilos worth of a turkish burrito) we shared our short message and the daughter told us she would come to church on Sunday and wanted to start hearing the lessons with her mom. It was way cool.
On Tuesday we had districe meeting in Freiburg, not a ton happened just the same sort of stuff but afterwards we went to a little town called Orschweier to meet with two members that live there. We helped one of the ladies move some furniture to her new apartment (which is in the same house just a different floor) and talked to her about some commandments. She even asked for a Book of Mormon cause there is someone she wanted to give it to. (That would be the second time she asked us for one to give away in the last month.) After we met with them we were stuck at the train station waiting for our train.
This city is really small and it was surprising they had a train station store but we decided to go in to look for a bathroom and we found out they have root beer, creme soda, ginger ale, and a bunch of american candy. Apparently the lady who owns the store likes American stuff and gets it from a friend who lives on the base. It was a sweet discovery.
Wednesday we go to meet a lot of new people. We did a lot of talking to people on the street and around shops and stuff and met a ton of people that hang out at this gambling sports bar place. I think everyone that normally goes there knows us now and we ordered about 5 arabic copies of the Book of Mormon to give to everyone there.
On Thursday we got transfer calls. I will be going up to Heilbron (hi-ill-bron) which is the northernmost part of our mission lol. So out of my three areas I have been the farthest east in our mission, farthest west, and now farthest north. I will actually be taking Elder Middleton's spot. Since he is going home on Thursday. I will be with the other person he trained lol. He is native swiss. Which will be cool.
After that we were around in different citys the whole day talking to members and older investigators alike. No super success or interesting things happened. Except that I found a hot dog stand that was selling 'american hot dogs' so naturally I got one. It was nothing like an american hot dog but still good.
On Friday we got to do one of the things I wanted to do before I left, and that was find a chinese buffet and do weekly planning there. We did our weekly planning which takes about three hours and got to eat all the good chinese food we wanted. It was awesome. Something the other two say they will probably do every Friday now for weekly planning. After that we went back to help the one member move some more of her stuff.
We spent the rest of the day and the next day calling and going to peoples houses and inviting them to church and to the party we were throwing afterwards. We decided since one of us was going, it was elder Van Uiterts birthday, and because the ward is so cool, we would throw a party for them afterwards. We literally talked to about 100 people about this party. I kid u not.
On the end of Saturday I got to meet an investigator Elder Baird had with Elder Greve before elder Greve had to leave. It is this super sweet family. The mom is a teacher at the catholic school about religion but she doesn't believe it. She believes almost everything we teach to the families only problem is that we do not support gay marriage and the whole proposition 8 thing that happened in California. They are extremely nice and even meet with this Jehova Witness couple on Tuesdays. They admited though they believe what we say more but we actually got to run into the couple on the street before and they are extremely nice. Even though sometimes missionaries or members of other churches cause issues when we see each other it was a very nice discussion and they didn't try to bible bash with us at all. They shared some scriptures with us and we got to share some scriptures with them and it was actually very nice. I told the family we visited I would send them a 24 pack of root beer down (we gave her one from the store in Orshweier after she declared her undying love of root beer to us) and they could share it with the Jehovah Witness couple on Tuesdays since most Germans don't like root beer but if they have enough of it they start to like it.
On Sunday we got to church and literally like no one came. It was really sad at first but we did get some Americans who came in later. Apparently they are on some exchange thing and they don't really know any German so I got to translate for them. After church we had our party and around that time about 10 more people showed up for the party lol. Wasn't really the goal we had in mind when we invited people but still good they came. It was way fun. We made sloppy joes and ice cream sandwiches with cookies. Probably the best ice cream sandwich I ever had and the ward loved all the food.
We also threw a small surprise birthday party at the church later with just us and Simon a less active young adult. Simon brought a bunch of ice cream and orange juice (you put vanilla ice cream and orange juice together like a root beer float. Not bad actually) and some cake. We played some board games and sung happy birthday and everthing. It was pretty cool. We don't really have anything planned for today. Im going to pack and we are going around to see if we can find a super old bible. Don't know why but they think it sounds fun so I'm fine with it. Well it was a really good week and I hope everything is going well back home as well. Ciao
Elder Hargett
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